Ted Hughes portrait auctions for $11,500

The portrait of Hughes sold along with Edwards' original artist's sketch, which captures the poet in a moment of deep and seemingly down-cast contemplation at the centenary of Wilfred Owen's birth.

Living artist Peter Edwards and Ted Hughes were friends during Hughes' lifetime

Hughes (1930-1998), an internationally renowned nature poet and the some-time husband of Sylvia Plath, was ranked fourth in the Times newspaper's 2008 list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

His lengthy career includes over a dozen books of poetry, several works in translation, many essays, and highly praised children's fiction.